Chapter twenty
Misty
I’d gone to pick up Ezra like I did every day, but he never came out. When I went to his classroom his teacher- an older human woman with gray hair, and always wore long denim skirts- told me Andi had already gotten him. I hated the fact my heart pounded with her words, fear filled me with the thought of him being alone with her. Andi had always been my hero, then she became my mom. I didn’t want to be afraid of her, and I didn’t want to be afraid of her with her son, who I knew she loved more than anything in her life. But I was.
“It was strange,” his teacher said. “She didn’t seem like herself, and Ezra was almost hesitant to go with her. I’d never seen him react to her that way before.” She watched for my reaction, but I hid my fear and gave her a nod.
“She hasn’t been feeling well, and he was probably just confused about her coming to get him is all.” I tried to smile reassuringly and then turned to leave before my panic overtook me.
I ran as fast as I could through the buildings, not stopping for any of the people who called out to me to slow down, and then jumped in the car. I didn’t normally drive to school, usually Max picked us up, but that morning I took Andi’s car knowing they wouldn’t be going anywhere.
I flew down the road to our house, imagining every possible scenario that could be taking place, then tried to ignore them. Maybe I was overreacting and I’d get home to my parents and brother being normal. I hoped that was what I was going to find, but that nagging feeling in my gut warned me it wasn’t going to happen.
The dirt road created a massive cloud of dust behind me, and I knew I’d be in trouble for getting the car so dirty, but I didn’t care. I’d take a grounding if it meant I could get home fast and check on Ezra. Plus I wasn’t too worried about them caring about it then, not when they’d clearly lost their minds.
The note was stuck in my head, the words telling me to be careful and not trust them. It didn’t say they’re not who you think they are, but what you think they are. What did that mean?
I jumped from the car before shutting it off and skipped the first few steps up the porch. Throwing the front door open, I stood frozen in place. Fear slammed into me and my heartbeat pounded loudly in my ears.
“Show me!” Andi screamed in Ezra’s face. She was holding him up against the wall by the collar of his shirt, his feet dangling between them.
“I don’t know how to show you,” he sobbed. The tears running from his wide green eyes, they were filled with fear and pain.
“What are you doing?” I asked and rushed over, grabbing her shoulder and trying to pull her back. She backhanded me across the cheek hard enough I hit the floor, but she didn’t look away from Ezra.
“If you don’t show me on your own, I’ll force it out of you,” she hissed and shook his little body as he whimpered.
I rolled over and hopped to my feet. I took off running to my room and pulled my sword from my mattress. I didn’t want to do it, never imagined I’d have to do anything like it. But I went back downstairs knowing I would protect Ezra from anyone who wanted to hurt him, even if it meant from his own mom.
“Please, mommy,” he cried and she slammed him against the wall with a growl coming from her throat.
I raised my sword and pointed it at her back, trying to force myself to stop trembling.
“Andi,” I said, surprising myself with the calmness of my voice. “Let him go.”
Her head tilted and she glanced over her shoulder, then she smirked. Her normal green and silver eyes were darker than they should have been. Reminding me of the one other time I’d see her out of control. When she let the darkness take over and almost killed us all.
She dropped him to the floor and he stumbled around her. With my free hand, I pushed him behind me, but I kept my eyes locked on hers.
“Andi, please.” I searched her face for anything I recognized and found nothing. “I don’t know what’s happening to you, but you’re stronger than this. You don’t want to hurt us.”
She took a step forward, and I pushed us one back.
“The little lightning girl,” she said in a voice that didn’t sound like hers. She’d had a raspy voice for years, but this was something else. Something darker, angrier. “You think you can take me?” Her smirk turned into a sneer, and her eyes flashed in a strange way. Flickered in the way a bulb does before it goes out. Her white hair was down and wild, dirty from not bathing and ratty from the days she’d gone without caring for herself. She looked like a crazy person, someone on the edge of insanity.
Her stare darted to Ezra, and I pushed him back until we were outside.
“Go to the car,” I said without looking away from Andi stalking toward me. Ezra's feet pounded loudly on the ground and the car door slammed shut. I let out a relieved breath, but it was cut short when Andi pulled her swords from her back.
The blue fire- only she was capable of - spread from her hands and traveled down the length of her weapons, making my short sword look tiny in comparison.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked and flinched as her flames shot out and surrounded us, caging us in the way I’d seen her do with her enemies. They began blazing in a way I’d only seen once, turning from their normal blue to white, then red, and settling on a mix of each color blending together. It was her way of beginning a fight, I’d seen it many times, but I wasn’t her enemy. I was her chosen daughter, and she loved me.
“Andi, listen to me, you’re under some kind of control. This isn’t you.”
She raised her swords and pointed them to my chest, narrowing her eyes in to slits.
“Show me your power,” she said and I jerked back with confusion. My power? “Show me or I’ll force you.”
What in the heck was going on? Why would she need to see my power?
“No,” I said and raised my sword with both hands. “You know I don’t like to use it unless I have to.”
“I don’t care what you like, you will bring it forward, or I will make you.” She took another step and I backed up as far as I could without touching her flames. The heat from them was unlike her usual fire, and it created more fear in me than I wanted to admit. This wasn’t her heavenly fire she’d thrown out, it was flames of anger and viciousness.
Ezra’s voice was yelling something from the car and Andi’s eye twitched, but she kept them on me. I saw it before it happened, but I still wasn’t prepared. The air from my lungs was yanked out and my body lifted off the ground, forcing my back to arch painfully.
“Let it out now,” she demanded. “Or it will be worse.” The tip of her swords connected with the small of my back and I yelped.
My body was overheated and skin was crackling with painful sparks. There’d been a few times I was able to use my power without it hurting, but most of the time it was too much. There was a reason I didn’t like letting it out, and why I spent more time learning to control it than anyone else. I’d used the years to contain my powers, not enhance it.
“Mommy, stop!” Ezra yelled and I turned my head as much as I could. He was standing outside the car, but separated from us by the wall of fire. “Please don’t hurt her!”
“If you don’t care about yourself, I will use him to force it from you.” She lowered one of her swords and pointed it at Ezra. He’d fallen to his knees and began bawling as he watched us with more fear on his face than I ever wanted to see.
“Andi,” I whispered, begging her to snap out of it.
A yell forced my eyes back on Ezra, who was being snatched off the ground roughly and into Sebastian’s arms. My shoulders relaxed, thinking he was there to help us. But then everything tightened again when he covered Ezra’s face with his hand and walked through the flames, standing next to Andi and staring at me without any compassion in his expression. There was nothing on his face, no anger, no pain, no confusion. And that blankness was more frightening than anything else could have been.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked and my body seiz
ed from something Andi was pushing into me. Every inch of skin sizzled and burned, hurting more than it had since I was little and had no control.
“Last chance,” she said and Sebastian lifted Ezra’s body, leveling his chest with Andi’s sword. His cries were hysterical, ripping my heart in two.
I closed my eyes and opened my mouth.
“Max!” I screamed as the power tore from me and landed on my mother, the woman I loved most in the world.
Chapter twenty-one
Max
I was sitting in the kitchen watching Sara stare at the wall. Reed had been there a few minutes before, but got up and walked out without saying a word. I tried to talk to them, but there was nothing there, it was like talking to a brick wall.
From the side, Sara didn’t look any different than she always had, but when I’d meet her blank stare I knew she wasn't the person I'd grown to love over the years. She wasn't my mother. Her brown eyes had a shine about them, a kindness not seen in many people, but since they’d been back, they were dull.
“MAX!”
I jerked off the chair and stumbled to the floor, looking from side to side, trying to figure out where she was. Misty’s voice had invaded my mind in a way it hadn’t in the past. “Max!” she yelled again and I slipped.
I landed on my side, and my jaw dropped at the sight in front of me. Misty’s was on her knees trembling from her head down, and Andi was standing in front of her with swords pointing at her head.
“Stop!” I jumped to my feet and used the air to force Andi to back a step. She flipped around and aimed her weapons at me, I raised my palms in surrender.
“What are you doing?” I asked and glanced to the side, where Sebastian was holding Ezra in his arms tightly. The kid looked terrified and had tears covering his face, but his father looked like a ghost. The blank expression on his face letting me know he wasn’t there.
“The son,” Andi said and stepped toward me with a sneer, one that didn’t belong to her. “What is your power?”
“What?”
“Show me your power or I’ll force it from you,” she said and I fell back a step.
There was no way I was fighting her with anything, especially not my power. I didn’t know what in the hell was going on, but I hadn’t expected anything like this. These were not the same people who saved me from the middle of the road all those years ago. This was not the same person who saved the world by defeating the demons and removing the shadows from the marked.
This person in front of me- with her dark eyes and evil smile- was a monster inside the body of a hero.
“I won’t show you anything,” I said and squared my shoulders. I didn’t expect her to attack me, so when I was hit in the chest by her flame, I went down quickly. I felt the burn throughout my body and understood why everyone feared her the way they did. A scream tore through the air, but it wasn’t from me, it was from Misty.
“Leave him alone!” I was flat on my back, and could barely move my head enough to see her. But from the corner of my eye, I watched her stagger to her feet. Misty opened her arms and pulled the power to her. I could feel it channeling through me, which wasn’t something she’d been able to do on her own before, but it would help keep her pain level down. It was what we’d practiced for years, but could never fully master.
The yard lit up with cracks of light, and the ground shook with the force of their strikes. The electricity crackled around her like a suit of armor, making her look like a walking lightning storm. Her blond hair was twisting around in the air and flipping her in the face. Her blue eyes were glowing with power, and focused on Andi, who was smiling like a maniac.
“There is more,” Andi said. “Show me all of it.”
I tried to stand but could only make it to one knee. Misty pulled her hands together and flicked one in front of her. A bolt of light whipped out and wrapped around Andi, locking her in place. It was more control than I’d ever seen her have, and it made me wonder if she’d been hiding it. The amount of power filling the link between us was far greater than I’d felt from her in all the times we’d work together before. I was taken back by the sheer force of it, confused why she'd been holding back so much.
“Stop,” Misty whispered. “You have to stop this.” She closed the space between them and brought her hands up to cup her mom's face. Andi was jerking her head from side to side, but Misty forced her to stop, making her hold eye contact.
“I love you,” she said and took a deep breath. “You are Alexandria Claire, the daughter of a fallen angel of death turned leader of the Watchers, and a nephilim seer. Guardian- soul marked by the Archangel Michael. A survivor of hell and a demon hunter. You’re the light in the darkness.” Misty leaned closer, and Andi stopped struggling but her shoulders shook with the need to fight. “You are my hero, my mother, and I love you.”
Andi’s entire body twitched and her head dropped, then she raised it and looked directly at Misty without being forced. The bolts were hitting around them, and the sparks flying from Misty’s body were covering the ground. Misty picked her sword up and pointed it at Andi’s face, then tilted it to the side.
“You told me this would save me one day, but I never thought it would be used against you. It was made for me, with the words saying I was the heart of light,” she said and pulled some of her power back to herself. “I was your heart, mom, please don’t forget that. I love you,” she said and the hold she had on her fell. Andi pushed herself to her hands and knees, her back rising and falling as she took in deep breaths.
I stood and moved toward them, taking my place behind Misty and placing a hand on her shoulder. I didn’t know what was about to happen, but I wasn’t prepared for the intensity of the scream that came from Andi’s mouth. She raised her face to the sky and cried in a way I’d not heard from another. Her flames surrounded her, covering her arms and traveling up her body, her white hair flew around her face and eyes began glowing in that silver way I’d seen them do so long ago. She reached up with both hands and gripped the back of her neck, yelling the entire time. When she fell over on herself, touching the ground with her forehead, my jaw dropped.
Andi was ripping something out of her skin, and it was bloody enough to make me queasy. Misty tried to go to her, but I kept my hold tight. I wasn’t letting her get close to that, whatever it was.
Andi pulled the end of it out, and dropped to the ground, heaving as though she’d been deprived of air.
Laying next to her was a long metal cord, covered in blood and tissue, and twitching like it was alive.
We were sitting in the kitchen, too shocked to understand what had happened. Misty was next to me, and in front of us was Andi who was holding Ezra in her lap and silently crying into his hair.
After Andi ripped the thing from her neck, she jumped to her feet and attached herself to Misty and Ezra, sobbing and begging for forgiveness. Sebastian had vanished at some point, but thankfully he had left Ezra behind.
“I don’t remember much,” Andi started and lifted Ezra from her lap, telling him to go play in his room for a little bit so we could talk. She hugged him tightly and kissed his cheek, promising to be there in a couple minutes.
“I do remember being caught off guard. We were expecting there to be soldiers, but we didn’t plan for them being mutants. They filled the room with some type of gas and the next thing I knew I was strapped to a table and they were implanting something to my spine.” Andi pulled the necklace from under her shirt and closed her fist around it.
“Do you remember us coming to get you?” Misty asked, and I flattened my hand over hers. Her fingers were digging into her legs that were bouncing under the table. When our skin touched I flinched, and she glanced at me from the corner of her eyes before turning back to Andi. I pulled some of the leftover power from her and filtered it through me. She relaxed instantly, and I felt a bit guilty for not doing it sooner. She’d used more than she was used to, and I knew it was painful for her, especially when she couldn�
��t get rid of it.
“I do, but it’s not the way I would have a real memory. I was there but I wasn’t there, like my movements were mind but someone else was making them. Almost like seeing a movie and remembering the scenes in it, does that makes sense?”
We both nodded and her shoulders dropped.
“I’m sorry you had to go through this, and I hate knowing I was used to hurt my own children.”
“I knew it wasn’t you,” Misty said and reached over to grab Andi’s hand. “I knew from the minute you opened your eyes something was wrong. I just didn’t know what it was.”
Andi told us a little more about what she could, but it wasn’t much. We knew what happened since they’d been back, and they were kept unconscious after the implant in the facility.
“We need to find the others and take the chip from them,” Andi said and stood.
“The chip?”
“Yeah, that thing they planted in my back? It’s a chip they attach to the nervous system and it gives them complete control over the host. They did it to all of us.”
I slipped before they finished talking. If that what was wrong with Sara and Reed, I was going to fix it.
Before I could search through each room, I knew. I knew from the movement I stepped into the house- they were already gone.
Chapter twenty-two
Misty
Illuminate Page 11